Swansea City Ladies Abergavenny

Swansea City Ladies suffered an agonising loss in a nine-goal thriller against Abergavenny Women in their first game of the 2016-17 Welsh Premier Women's League campaign. 

The Swans had some early chances at Llandarcy Academy of Sport with Courteney Thomas and Stacey John going close to opening the scoring. 

However, it was Abergavenny who took the lead in the tenth minute with a strike from Lynsey Davies from the edge of the box. 

Davies strengthened Abergavenny's lead seven minutes later with a well-taken strike to put the visitors 2-0 up. 

The Swans went close to reducing the deficit but Jodie Passmore's free-kick was just off target. 

Abergavenny took a 3-0 lead midway through the first half as Davies completed her hat-trick by chipping the ball over Swans keeper Ffion Ashman. 

The hosts started their comeback just after the half-hour mark as Passmore netted with a low shot into the bottom left corner before Swans stopper Ashman made some superb saves to prevent the visitors extending their lead before the break. 

Swansea pulled a second goal back through Emma Beynon in the final minute of the first-half following an excellent run down the right flank.

Swans Ladies came out fighting in the second half and equalised a minute after the restart through Katy Hosford.

The hosts continued to attack and took the lead on the hour mark as Beynon netted her second of the game after she slotted home a composed finish following a one-on-one with Abergavenny's keeper. 

But the score was level again two minutes later as Davies scored her fourth of the match for Abergavenny with a close-range finish. 

Beynon went close to restoring Swansea's lead but it was Abergavenny who sealed the winner as Kate Jeremiah latched onto a rebound to seal the victory for the visitors. 

"I don't feel we performed 100 per cent," explained Swansea's Stacey John. "As a team, coming off the back of pre-season, I feel we could have performed better but we still did really well to score four goals.

"We worked really hard to come back from being 3-0 down at half-time to lead 4-3. It's just unlucky that we lost the game.

"I think we've got a lot more in the locker to give. This was just a bad day at the office but coming off pre-season I think we can give a lot more than what we have and we are a better team than what we were in this game. 

"As a team we are together and look forward to next Sunday's match against Port Talbot Town."

SWANS LADIES: Ffion Ashman, Lowri Ridings, Alicia Powe, Ria Hughes, Emma Beynon, Sophie Hancocks, Courteney Thomas (Lara Gait 87), Katy Hosford, Stacey John, Gemma Border (Courtney Harries 45), Jodie Passmore.

Unused subs: Courtney Young, Molly Cana, Charlotte Phillips.